


A Man and His Puppy

by misura



Category: Mission: Impossible (Movies), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Gratuitous Animal Sidekick, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-22 01:19:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Benji finds a puppy. What follows is inevitable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Man and His Puppy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FlatlandDan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlatlandDan/gifts).



> any and all semblance of reality has been cheerfully tossed overboard in favor of uh non-reality
> 
> look, it's a puppy!
> 
> (also, this is a treat. note how I resist the obvious pun here of saying it's a puppy treat.)

The official term for what they're doing is _observing_. They've got a hotel room on the sixth floor with a nice view on the sixth floor of the office on the other side of the street - provided the people inside don't pull down the blinds, which they haven't thus far.

The unofficial word for what they're doing is _getting bored out of their minds_. Brandt devoutly hopes not to be jumping down any 25-foot shafts again any time soon, but there's _that_ and then there's _this_ and it seems to him that, really, there's a whole lot of things in between that would suit him just fine.

 

Benji getting back seven minutes early from a coffee run, face flushed and breathing hard, isn't really one of those things. He's got both arms wrapped around the general area of his stomach, which is worse - a shoulder wound would have been bad; a cut throat or headshot worst, obviously.

Alive is good. "Benji?"

"I - " Benji wheezes. "I'm - "

"Shot or stabbed?" What Brandt _wants_ to do is get over to Benji, see for himself what's wrong.

What Brandt _should_ do is to get the first-aid kit out first. "Talk to me, Benji." Fact: Benji's made it back. Fact: whoever got to him might be following. Fact: if they are, they're not going to live to regret it. Fact: regardless of whether or not Benji's been followed, their mission has been compromised.

"Neither!" Benji says - snaps, really, except that he's still panting a bit.

Brandt drops the first aid kit on the table. "What do you mean: neither? What - " There's something moving under Benji's jacket. A bulge. "What's that?"

"Found him," Benji says, carefully opening his jacket. "Outside."

The good news: it's not a kitten. Brandt is not a cat person, and pets are forbidden in the hotel, and small or not, kittens can be noisy.

The bad news ... "A puppy."

"Cardboard box," Benji says. " 'Free to a good home', the sign said."

"We're not," Brandt says. "We're not 'a good home', Benji."

"There were some kids around."

Kids and puppies are a good match. This is common knowledge. "Well, then - "

Benji shakes his head. "Didn't like the looks of them."

"Right," Brandt says, because yeah. Okay. _That_ kind of kids. "You tell Ethan."

 

It turns out that Jane, too, is a dog person, or at least a puppy person, which adds up to the same thing.

"I'm teaching him to fetch my equipment," Benji says. From what Brandt's seen, Benji mostly just tells the puppy it's being a 'good boy', to which the puppy replies by barking, yipping or otherwise endangering their working relationship with the hotel management.

"So whose is he?" Jane asks, scratching the puppy on its head.

Ethan hasn't said anything yet. Brandt strongly suspects it's a case of letting them have enough rope to hang themselves with. "Well," he says.

"I'm the one who found him," Benji says.

"We've both been taking care of him."

"And I'm the one who figured out his favorite brand of dogfood."

"We've been taking turns walking him."

"So, really, I'd have to say he's mine."

"Ours," Brandt says. "Definitely ours. Team mascot? We could use one of those, right?"

 

They're flying IMF Airlines, which is good. Brandt doesn't quite know how many forms Customs makes you fill out for a puppy, but he's pretty sure the answer isn't zero. (Fine. It's two - three if it's a female and possibly pregnant.)

"We're not going to keep him," Ethan says.

The puppy is waddling around, looking for ... something. Not the bathroom, Brandt hopes. Also: personal pronouns are good. _We_ , Ethan's said. _Him_.

"So what's the plan?" Jane asks.

"We'll do what his mother's owners were too lazy to do," Ethan says. "Find him a good home."

Brandt leans back in his seat, satisfied. It's a good answer, a sensible solution ... and if it ever happens, he'll eat his shirt. When Ethan says 'a good home', what he means is, clearly, a thoroughly vetted new owner and a guaranteed safe and secure house to live in.

Jane coughs. "I actually meant the mission."

"Oh. Right."

Brandt grins. Jane winks. Somewhere in the back, Benji sleeps the sleep of the innocent, the ignorant and the ungrateful.

 

Two weeks later, the puppy still hasn't been passed on to a new home.

Ethan's _tried_ , Brandt grants him that much. They're just not really in the right line of work to know a lot of people who'd make good pet owners. In theory, of course, they don't _have_ to personally know the new owner, but.

"Uncle suspected of using drugs. No."

"His uncle lives three states away," Brandt feels obliged to point out.

"No. Benji, what've you got?"

"Three DUIs in seven months."

"That'd be a definite no, too, then. Jane?"

"I've got someone in Dublin."

"Bit far, isn't it?" Brandt says. It's a joke. He knows Jane's been exempted from the puppy mission.

"If they check out, why not? With all the traveling we've been doing, we're bound to hit Dublin sooner or later," Benji says.

"That'd be sooner, then. As in: we leave in two hours. Get packed."

Benji looks ... well.

"The mission," Brandt says. "Remember the mission?"

"Of course I remember the mission. What do you think I am: daft?"

"Well, that's what we're going to Dublin for."

"I knew that."

 

Dublin starts like a routine job: observe, analyze, go in, get out.

 _Easy as pie,_ Benji says, shoving the pup off the screen for about the tenth time or so. (Brandt's not sure what the attraction is; a combination of light and color and warmth and movement, perhaps.)

Barely three hours later, of course, it's all gone to hell in a handbasket.

 

One hostile, Brandt could have handled. Two, probably, too. Three might get tricky. Four, still doable, if they're spectacularly poorly organized and/or poor shots with a shortage of ammunition.

Five turns out to be a bit of a problem. On the bright side, Jane and Ethan are only ten miles out, and closing in pretty fast, if Jane's behind the wheel. _Extremely_ fast, if Ethan is.

On the not-so-bright side, Benji's a lot less than ten miles out. A _lot_ less.

"You have ten seconds."

Within shooting distance, so to speak - and Brandt's unfortunately not the only one with a gun.

"Nine."

The second-best thing to do in this kind of scenario is to stall for time. Wait for reinforcements.

"Eight."

The best thing to do in this kind of scenario is to not let it happen.

"Seven."

Even if Brandt throws down his gun and surrenders, there's no guarantee they're not going to shoot both of them anyway.

"Six."

On the other hand, he can't exactly do nothing and let them shoot Benji.

"Five."

Ten miles, say four minutes ago. A bit more, maybe. Assume a speed of sixty miles an hour, to err on the side of caution. Assume a higher speed, to get a more hopeful outcome. (Question: given that Ethan is the one who answered the phone, does that mean an increase or a decrease in the odds of his being the driver?)

"Four."

Answer: ... inconclusive.

"Threeyeowch!"

There's a yipping noise (the puppy?) and someone cursing (not Benji) and shots being fired (not Benji either, unless they let him keep his gun, which seems unlikely, although it's possible he's gotten his hands on one of theirs).

As far as moments to break cover go, it's pretty much a now-or-never one, so Brandt does.

_Two_

The count is off, of course. Depending on how much damage Benji's managed to do during the ... whatever it is that's happened, the hostiles will either be trying to kill him or attempting a recapture, which means shooting to incapacitate. Which doesn't guarantee the result will actually be non-lethal.

"Benji!"

_One._

"There you are." Five hostiles down, one man standing. One of the bodies moves faintly - Brandt can't tell if it's voluntary or not. There's a yip and then a growl.

Brandt's mistake. Five hostiles down, one man and one puppy standing.

 

"I think we should give him a name."

Some people become more and more heroic the more often they repeat a story. Benji's described the scene in the warehouse at least five times now, and each time, the puppy's performing more unlikely feats.

Brandt will buy the puppy as a distraction. It makes sound, and it moves. You throw it at someone, they're going to take their gun off you for a couple of moments.

"Oh, he's got one already," Benji says absently.

Brandt will _not_ buy the puppy as a yipping, jumping whirlwind of claws and teeth that's taken down three armed hostiles all by itself.

"Killer?" The puppy yips. Brandt sighs. "Please tell me it's not 'Killer'."

Benji looks faintly offended. "Of course it's not 'Killer'. It's Rover the Second."

"Rover the First being ... the rover?" Ethan sounds amused.

"Well, yeah."

"It's a good name," Brandt says.

"Thanks."

"If he'd been a remotely-controlled robot."

 

One thing about Benji: he thinks things through, after.

Ethan's got his hunches, and Brandt analyzes, and Jane thinks on her feet (a mix of instinct and logic, maybe) and Benji reflects, after. It's useful, sometimes.

"He could have been killed."

"Like any of us," Brandt says, by way of saying 'yes'.

"He did save my life."

Brandt doesn't say he could have done the same. It might very well be true, but it's not important to the current discussion. Inasfar as it's a discussion, instead of a simple case of adding up the arguments.

"I just - it'd be easier if I knew for sure he'd be staying with someone _right_ , you know? I can't just hand him over to a stranger, especially not now."

Brandt takes a slow breath. "I might know of someone."

"Who?"

A bit of a problem, there. "I can't tell you. But I'm pretty sure you'd like them." Possibly, that's saying too much already. Benji's not an idiot. That frown Brandt's seeing isn't annoyance - or at least, not _just_ annoyance.

Brandt might want to start thinking about the best way to tell Ethan.

"Pretty sure?"

Brandt remembers a conversation less than a year ago, and a 25-foot fall. _I'll catch you._

"Very sure. Trust me."

Benji nods, once.

Brandt starts working out a way to gift a dead woman with a puppy, preferably without getting killed by her husband in the process.


End file.
